Today, Vancouver, the busiest port in Canada, welcomes 40,000 seafarers from around the world annually.

Since 1981, Lighthouse Harbour Ministries has been a beacon of hope to seafarers from across the globe. Now we are reaching out through this website to seafarers to fulfill our mission—to love and honour God by serving the seafarers of the world in word and deed.

Please take the time to explore our website and learn more about our ministry and the men we serve.

by Teus Kappers

Have you ever grabbed a dog by its’ ears? Just imagine, for example, that you see an aggressive pit bull terrier threatening a child. Would you have the courage to take the dog by its ears and swing it away?

If I was the one to intervene in the above scenario, I can just imagine the look on the dog’s face: anger (now directed at me)! The dog would probably be growling, foaming at the mouth and showing me his big canine teeth. Maybe I would have rescued the child but I would then be the one who was in trouble.

Proverbs 26:17 says, “Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own.” Some years ago I was aboard a ship where a serious dispute existed between the crew and officers who were from different nationalities. From this problem, physical violence had resulted and threatening words such as, “We’ll kill you” (and also other words not worth repeating) had been spoken. So, in the midst of this conflict came the six-foot, seven inch tall Chaplain, full of good intentions and wanting to settle the war.

All went well for the first hour as I hopped back and forth from the ship’s mess room to the office, trying to negotiate a peace settlement. But, then, another “negotiator,” whose interest was not the same as mine, came aboard. His involvement began with his warning of the seafarers about me! The result was a lot of swearing, instructions from the sailors telling me to leave their ship and my Gospel opportunity being ruined. In addition, the men of that ship never came to our seamen’s centre.

From a quick read of the above story you can see that I was never asked to be a mediator for the two groups of seafarers. I “walked into their problem” but should, instead, have been wiser than to have gotten involved.

Recently, I came across the verse quoted previously from Proverbs 26 and as I meditated on it the above mentioned story came to mind. As Christians, it is a wonderful privilege to know that, in contrast to inadequate human go-betweens, we have a great and perfect Mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. Swinging a dog by its ears would not have been sufficient to help us; only Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross brought us peace.